Advance Orders

AcctVantage version 2013.2.0.2 introduces a new feature to manage Advance Orders. This feature arose from the question of:

What to do with Sales Orders that are taken well in advance of their Required Ship Date?

You may not want to allocate inventory to fill those orders today when the order is months away from shipment. In prior versions of AcctVantage, you could enter an Order with "Qty to Ship = 0" to prevent tying up the stock. However, somebody would then need to be responsible for revisiting the Order and allocating stock in time to fill the order. This process made planning for purchasing or production difficult because the requirement is not tied to MRP system due to the “Qty to Ship = 0” necessity.

With the Advance Orders / Quote Release feature, we’ve added tools to automate allocation of future orders at a prescribed date and ensure that the demand is made part of the inventory planning process.

Quotes now have a checkbox for Auto-Release Order with an associated Release Date field. If the box is checked, AcctVantage will automatically convert the Quote to an Order on the Release Date and reserve available inventory (or trigger a backorder) as of that date. Also, a Sales Forecast will automatically be created for Auto-Release Quotes using the Required Ship Date so that the forecasted demand is a part of the MRP plan for purchasing or production.

System Configuration settings

Before you get started there are 3 new settings in System Configuration that you should pay attention to. These settings are found under Sales Document in the drop-down list:

  • Quote - Create MRP Forecasts: Determines the conditions in which MRP Forecasts are created when a Quote is converted to an Order.
  • Quote - Order Date Value: Determines the Order Date for the new Sales Order that is being created from a Quote.
  • Quote - Prompt to Create MRP Forecasts: Determines if the user is prompted to create/update MRP Forecasts when a new Quote is saved.
System Configuration settings

Quote - Prompt to Create MRP Forecasts

There are 2 options to determine if you're prompted to create Sales Forecasts when saving the Quote (see a screenshot of the actual prompt in Step #1.1):

  • Always: When this option is selected you will always see the prompt to create or update Forecasts.
  • Never: When this option is selected you will never see the prompt to create or update Forecasts.

These settings are used in conjunction with the System Configuration setting: Quote - Create MRP Forecasts.

Quote - Prompt to Create MRP Forecasts

Quote - Create MRP Forecasts

There are 3 options to determine when Sales Forecasts will be created:

  • All Quotes: With this setting all quotes will have Forecasts created as of the Required Ship Date, regardless of the presence of a Release Date.
  • Only Quotes with Release Dates: Forecasts will only be created if there is a Release Date entered on the Quote. The Forecast will be created as of the Required Ship Date.
  • Never Create Forecasts: Regardless of the presence of a Release Date, Sales Forecasts will never be created under this setting.
Quote - Create MRP Forecasts

Quote - Order Date Value

There are 3 options to determine what the Order Date is on the new Sales Order after the Quote ➤ Order conversion is done.

  • Conversion Date: This is synonymous with the Release Date, which is the date the Quote ➤ Order conversion occurs.
  • Quote Date: This is the Quote Date on the original Quote. By default, the Quote Date is the Entry Date when you first open a new Quote, but this can be changed to a different date during data entry.
  • Entry Date:  This is the date that the Quote was entered into the system.
Quote - Order Date Value

1. Create a Quote.

Entering a Quote is no different than you are used to except for a couple new fields in the bottom left-hand corner under the heading Quote Status.

In this example, we have Quote #44 for 10 units of a Product. Make note of the Order, Ship, BO and Invoice Quantities. (You can't see it on this Quote but we don't actually have these units in stock yet. In order to reflect the correct pricing, Quotes always assume the full Order Qty can be shipped immediately.)

  • Quote Status: The Quote Status itself is just a text field with a choice list attached to it. You can add values to this list and then select a value appropriately. This field is not required to use the Advance Order feature. It is merely there to help you organize your Quotes.
  • Expiration Date: This date is neither required to use the Advance Order feature nor is it enforced anywhere in the system. It is there for your reference.
  • Release Date: This is when the Quote will be converted to an Order. If Inventory is available to be reserved for the Order, then it will be reserved. If Inventory is not available, then a Backorder will be created. This follows the standard functionality that is already in place for occasions where you manually convert the Quote to an Order. Once the Quote to Order conversion occurs, a Sales Forecast will be created for each item as of the Required Ship Date.
  • Auto-Release Order: If this box is checked, the Quote will automatically be converted to an Order on the Release Date...and, as previously mentioned, the Forecast will be created as of the Required Ship Date.
Create a Quote.

1.1. Do you want to create / update MRP forecasts from this quote?

If you have the Prompt to Create MRP Forecasts setting set to Always, then you will see this message when you save the Quote.

If you have the Prompt to Create MRP Forecasts setting set to Never, then you won't see this message. Instead the Forecast will automatically be created (or not) based on the setting for Create MRP Forecasts.

Do you want to create / update MRP forecasts from this quote?

2. The Sales Forecast

This is an example of the Sales Forecast that is created by the Quote in this example. This record is what drives the MRP function, which provides information about upcoming inventory requirements. Changes can still be made to the Quote and have the Forecast(s) updated accordingly.

The Sales Forecast

3. The Product ➤ MRP tab

The Product ➤ MRP tab illustrates the Inventory Requirements for this Advanced Order. Take a look at the 05/02/14 column...

  1. From this illustration you can see we began this week already needing 10 units that we don't have in stock (thus -10 for Begin Avail.)
  2. Next, you can see the effects of our Quote ➤ Order conversion. In the Total Forecast row you can see we require 10 additional units.
  3. The End Avail row you can see we are down to -20 units. This is the previous -10 units minus another -10 for the new Order.
  4. In the Planned Orders row you can see we are planning to order 20 units this week to fulfill our current Orders.
  5. Finally, in the Action Items section, you can see that we now have an action for 20 units to be ordered on PO. If you double-click in the Status column, you will see the word Pending. This means that we still have not issued the Purchase Order, but that a PO is available to be generated from this MRP Action Item.
The Product ➤ MRP tab

4. The converted Sales Order.

Here you can see the result of the Quote ➤ Order conversion. This is the new Sales Order that was created from Quote #44. Notice the Order, Ship, BO and Invoice Quantities now as compared to Step #1. This reflects the fact that we don't have enough units in stock to ship this Order. In this case a Backorder will be created.

From here, the Sales Order (and Backorder if applicable) can be processed as normal.

The converted Sales Order.

Video Review

Advanced Orders Feature Announcement from AcctVantage ERP on Vimeo.